Phase ~ What?

I belong to several online support groups & pages. It is getting easier for me to tell by the questions people ask what Phase they are in or how long they have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. I like that no matter what phase we are in we can offer help to others.

By now, you are probably saying WTH is this girl talking about? We haven’t seen anything about Phases. Well, you are right. It’s something that I have thought about for quite some time. I believe that their are 4 phases that we hopefully will go through on our journey through Fibro land. If we are lucky we will have the support from Family & Friends to reach and stay in Phase 4.

Phase I ~ Tests, Tests & More Tests

Every Fibromite reaches a point when we have to find out why we have been enduring the pain, headaches, depression, and exhaustion. We undergo blood tests, body scans, and a long list of Doctor appointments. After each test we hear the same thing from Doctors, Family & Friends that “It’s all in your head” & “There is nothing wrong with you”.

This phase can take years sometimes most of your life to get through Phase I.

After finally finding a Doctor willing to look at the whole picture ~ we are diagnosed.

Phase II ~ Acceptance

Once diagnosed we and the others around us need to accept the fact that the pain and tiredness we have been experiencing is never going away. We have to accept the possibility of what other symptoms and evil sidekicks may develop. Most importantly we need to accept that our lifestyle will need to change. We may not be able to do everything that we want or have been doing.

Phase III ~ Education

We need to first educate ourselves. The internet gives us access to unlimited information. Personal blogs and online support groups allow opportunities to see you are not alone, to ask questions, get suggestions and ideas. We need to do research – to keep looking for what might work in helping manage our symptoms/evil sidekicks. Next, we need to educate those around us. We need to try and describe how we feel in ways that others will understand and what we need for them to do to help us not just daily but when we are experiencing a flare.

Phase IV ~ Living with Fibromyalgia

We should all strive to reach and stay in Phase 4. Phase 4 to me means looking at life from a positive approach. To be accepting of what I can and can’t do, that I will have good & bad days, that there will be some things I won’t be able to do and somethings I will have to do. Also, I feel it means we choose to be as positive as possible. We need to not give up, to continue to learn and try new forms of treatment, adjust activities and surroundings so that we can continue to Live life.